South Africa overcome Francois Mostert's red card to beat Italy 32-14

Italy 14-32 South Africa, Turin

South Africa successfully overcame red card of Franco Mostert as they went on to defeat Italy 32-14 in their encounter in Turin.

Mostert was sent off early in the 12th minute for a shoulder to head contact on Italy fly-half Paolo Garbisi leaving the Springboks with another setback following Lood de Jager's send off last week in Paris.

The Springboks employed rotation bringing on four players from the bench in the first 30 minutes which went without a point. The deadlock ended in the 34th minute when Handre Pollard kicked a penalty goal and shortly South Africa’s Gerhard Steenekamp was taken for a Head Injury Assessment.

Italy had a chance to level their account in the 36th minute which Garbisi kicked to perfection but the Boks seized the lead back at the brink of half time as Marco van Staden bundled over the line for the opening try of the game and Pollard improved it to make it 3-10 by the end of the opening half.

Italy were given early opportunity in the second half as the Boks were pinged for illegally trying to recover the ball on the floor following which Garbisi kicked a three-pointer to make it 6-10.

South Africa's indiscipline continued to haunt them as Marco van Staden was yellow carded in the 52nd minute for a ruck infringement and Garbisi with his third successful kick brought down the deficit to one point before Pollard negated his effort with a three pointer of his own making it 9-13.

The 55th minute saw Lorenzo Cannone sin-binned for a high tackle on Kwagga Smith despite which Italy had a one-player advantage but the visitors extended the lead with scrum half Morne van den Berg picking the ball from the back of a ruck and darted on to the right with Pollard's conversion making it 9-20.

Italy narrowed down the deficit to six points by the 66th minute when Ange Capuozzo collected an inside pass to dot down but Garbisi's conversion drifted wide. South Africa seized the game in the final 10 minutes as Grant Williams and Ethan Hooker scored late tries to seal a 32-14 victory.

Rassie Erasmus' men will now face Ireland on 22nd November followed by a clash against Wales on 29th November.

Team line up:

South Africa XV: 1 Boan Venter, 2 Johan Grobbelaar, 3 Zachary Porthen; 4 Jean Kleyn, 5 Franco Mostert; 6 Siya Kolisi (capt.), 7 Ben-Jason Dixon, 8 Marco van Staden; 9 Morne van den Berg, 10 Handre Pollard; 11 Kurt-Lee Arendse, 12 Ethan Hooker, 13 Canan Moodie, 14 Edwill van der Merwe; 15 Damian Willemse.

Reserves: 16 Gerhard Steenekamp, 17 Wilco Louw, 18 RG Snyman, 19 Ruan Nortje, 20 Andre Esterhuizen, 21 Kwagga Smith; 22 Grant Williams, 23 Manie Libbok.

Italy XV: 1 Danilo Fischetti, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 3 Marco Riccioni; 4 Niccolo Cannone, 5 Andrea Zambonin; 6 Ross Vintcent, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 8 Lorenzo Cannone; 9 Stephen Varney, 10 Paolo Garbisi; 11 Monty Ioane, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex (capt.), 14 Louis Lynagh; 15 Ange Capuozzo.

Reserves: 16 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Simone Ferrari, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Riccardo Favretto, 21 David Odiease; 22 Martin Page-Relo, 23 Tommaso Allan.